Big plans rolling out for April 17, 2014

Ford has big plans to celebrate the 50-year birthday of the Mustang, which will be April 17, 2014. The staging of the big bash is being rolled out in many stages so you know there will be fireworks on the big day.

The latest birthday sparkler is the “Mustang Countdown,” an online video series to highlight car and culture. It is a worldwide icon and its own brand, as globally recognized as Coca-Cola.

Kicking off the series – “Where It All Started: The Mustang 1 Concept” – begins in 1962 with debut of the first concept to wear the pony shoes. From there, other episodes rummage through Ford’s Mustang archives, Mustang toys, custom Mustangs and more. It’s all about finding unique and often rare footage, exclusive new interviews and expert insight, Ford says.

“RC Movie Magic: Filming a Chase”, takes a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of student filmmaker Zach King’s “The Cliché RC Action Chase.” That short film went viral earlier this year on YouTube with a pair of radio-controlled Mustangs drifting around corners, racing and evading helicopter gunships in a scale, cardboard city. It is shot without computer-generated imagery, but with much home-built inspiration.

More than 9.2 million Mustangs have been sold since the car’s 1964 debut. Mustang has made more than 3,000 appearances on film and TV – including “I Am Legend” (2007) and my favorite, “Bullitt” (1968). Next year, a modified Mustang will be the hero car in “Need for Speed,” based on the video game series from Electronic Arts.

I wish my parents hadn’t thrown out my 1/18th scale, battery-powered 1964 Mustang in that tomato-soup red. But I still have the owner’s manual from my 1966 Mustang, Sauterne Gold, black vinyl top and V-8.